Sound producing device



Feb. 14, 1950 R. c. KUCERA 2,497,457

SOUND PRODUCING DEVICE Filed Jan. 14, 1946 -3 INVENTOR. RUE/0.0.712 C].K u car a.

BY Wm M Patented Feb. 14 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SOUNDPRODUCING DEVICE Rudolph C. Kucera, Alhambra, Calif; Application.January 14, 1946, Serial No. 641,122

7 Claims. 1-

My present; invention has to do with sound: producing apparatus andfinds its chief application as anoise' producer for toy guns, pistolsand the like.

It" is an object of my invention to provide a sound producing elementof. this. character which is extremely economical of construction,efiicient in operation, is easy to install. and which is very simple to;operate.

Another object" isthe provision of a. sound producing element which maybe repeatedly operated without manual resetting.

Still further objects and. corresponding advantages will appear fromthe. following description of a presently preferred embodiment of theinvention, for which purpose I shall refer to the accompanying drawings,in which:

Fig. I is a sectional view showing some parts in elevation, the. devicebeing shown in inoperative position; v

Fig. 2' is a view similar to Fig. I but showing the parts in anotherposition;

Fig; 3- is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section taken on line 4'-4 of'Fig'. 1;

Fig; 5 is a fragmentary section showing a modified.- form of apparatus;

Fig. 6 is a section taken on line 66 of Fig. 5'; and

Fig. 7 is a sectionsimilar to Fig. 6 but showing a further'modification.

Referring" now to the drawings, I show generally at 5' a body which matypify any element in which sound is to be produced and is here usedtodenote, for instance, the body portion of a toy pistol having a barrelportion 6, a sound chamber 1 and a passageway 8- for part of the soundproducing element.

The sound generating element here shown consists oftwoflatparallelresilient strips H), H', secured normal contacting relationship byhaving only their'l'eft-ha-nd end portions Hl'a, lla'secured to bodyportion 5a as by means of a top plate [-2 and a screw F5. The right-handends of the strips are thus suspended in thesound chamher, theright-hand end of the top strip I'll projecting outwardly beyond thecontiguous end of strip f t for the purpose to bedescribed.

Thus tocreate a sound, the strips are separated andsuddenl'yreleasedand, b virtue of their resiliency', quickly snaptogether, creating-- a sound in. chamber '1. The sound generatingelement just described. is more or less convention-at in the welt-knownclapper type of noise producing devices; lit will be understood, orcourse, that the 2 lower strip H maybe any hard base element or bodycapable of creating a sound when struck by top element In.

It is to the mechanism for actuating the sound generating elements-thatis, for flexing the free end of strip 10' away from strip ll andsuddenly releasing it-that my invention is more particularly directed,as will now be described.

Slidably mounted in the passageway 8 between side walls '20, 2! andagainst side wall 22, I provide a traveling block which has, a roundedtop end 25 and a front projection 21 providing an upwardly facing.shoulder 28, the projection having a somewhat rounded undersuriace 29 topermit" it to ride over the strip l0 during downward movement of thetraveling block.

The traveling block is urged against wall 22 by means of a spring 36anchored at one end in the body and bearing at its other end in anoutwardly flaring recess 3| in the traveling block 25, so that thelatter block may slide along, wall 22 and swing away from said wall, butis at all times yieldably urged towards said wall.

The means for sliding the block upwardly consists of a trigger or lever34 in the nature of a bell crank, having :a finger-gripping portion 35depending below the body, and an arm 31, the trigger being secured on aspindle 3a pivoted at its ends in end recesses in set screws 38athreaded in the body. In inoperative or idle position the arm 31 abuts astop pin 39 mounted transversely of chamber 20. Trigger arm 31 has anopening 40 through its outer end through which a depending extension 42of the block 25 extends, the extension being headed at 44'.

When in inoperative or idle position (Fig. 1) the shoulder 28 of thetraveling block rests immediately under the projecting end of the topstrip Ill. As the trigger arm 35 is swung to the right about its pivot,arm 31 swings upwardly, pushing the traveling block upwardly until thetop strip [0- is swung upwardly sufiiciently that said end .will rideover the shoulder 28. In Fig. 2 the device is shown immediatelyapproaching the latter position. As the strip in is thus suddenlyreleased from the shoulder, it springs back by virtue of its ownresiliency, striking the strip' H to create a snapping sound.

To return the traveling block to its inoperative or idle position, Iprovide a second spring 50, bearing at one end against the body andbearing downwardly at its other end against trigger arm 31'. This springmoves the arm 3'! downwardly, pulling the, traveling block downwardly,while the spring 30 yields sufficiently toenablethe projection 21 topass downwardly over the contiguous end of strip ID to cause the deviceto be reset for a repeat operation.

In Figs. 5 and 6 the elements are as before de scribed, and are givenlike reference numerals, except in the following respects: in lieu ofsprings 30, for moving block 25, I here provide a pair of coil springs55, each looped at its top end about a cross pin carried by the block 25and looped at its bottom end about stop pin 39. The springs are disposeddownwardly and forwardly so as to urge the traveling bar downwardly andforwardly. Here, since the springs constantly urge the bar 25 downwardlyagainst lever arm 31, I merely provide a slot 51 in the bottom end ofbar 25 into which slot fits the reduced end 58 of arm 31. I here alsoshow a cam member 50 disposed transversely of chamber 7 in th path ofaxial movement of the bar 25.

This cam is engaged by the rounded end portion 26a of the bar afterpredetermined upward movement of the bar, and thus the top end of thebar is cammed laterally away from the end of strip it] to disengage theshoulder 28 from the strip and thereby release the strip. In Fig. 7 theparts are as before described except that here I only utilize one springinstead of the two springs 55, one end of the spring being secured tothe block 25 and the other end secured to the stop pin 39.

While, in the foregoing, I have resorted to considerable detail ofstructure and association of parts in describing a particular example ofmy invention, I wish it to be understood that I have done so merely tomake my invention understood and that I do not limit my invention tosuch details. On the contrary, my invention is only to be limited asappears in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In sound producing apparatus, a vibratory element, means foractuating said element comprising a body, a traveling bar mounted in thebody for axial sliding movement into and out of operative engagementwith said element and for lateral movement towards and away from saidelement, lever means carried by the body and cooperable with the bar tomove the latter axially into operative engagement with said element, and

spring means for moving said bar laterally and axially in the oppositedirection.

2. Sound producing apparatus comprising a body providing a sound chamberand a passageway opening into the chamber, a pair of sound producingstrips disposed in superimposed relationship in the chamber, meanssecuring contiguous ends of the strips to the body, the opposite freeends of the strips being unsecured to the body, the topmost of thestrips being resilient whereby, when flexed away from the other stripand released, to engage the latter strip in a sound producing manner,means for so flexing and releasing said topmost strip, including atraveling bar slidably mounted in the passageway and having a lateralprojection engageable with the free end of the topmost strip, saidprojection being releasable from said strip in response to predeterminedsliding movement of the bar, and means for sliding the bar.

3. Sound producing apparatus comprising a body providing a sound chamberand a passageway opening into the chamber, a pair of sound producingstrips disposed in superimposed relationship in the chamber, meanssecuring contiguous ends of the strips to the body, the opposite freeends of the strips being unsecured to the body, the topmost of th stripsbein resilient whereby, when flexed away from the other strip andreleased, to engage the latter strip in a sound producing manner, meansfor so flexing and releasing said topmost strip, including a travelingbar slidably mounted in the passageway and having a lateral projectionengageable with the free end of the topmost strip, said projection beingreleasable from said strip in response to predetermined sliding movementof the bar, and means for sliding the bar, said last-named meanscomprising a lever pivotally mounted in the body for operativeengagement with the bar, and spring means urging the bar laterallytowards the free end of the topmost strip.

4. Sound producing apparatus comprising a body, a pair of superimposedresilient clapper strips secured at one end in the body and having theiropposite free ends suspended in the body with the free end of one of thestrips projecting beyond the contiguous end of the other strip, atraveling bar loosely mounted in the body for axial movement and forswinging movement towards and away from said projecting end of saidstrip, spring means opposing swinging movement of the bar in a directionaway from said projecting end of said strip, said bar having a lateralprojection normally engaging under said projecting end of said stripwhereby upon axial movement of the bar in one direction to flex saidstrip and to release the same after predetermined axial movement of thebar, and means for axially moving said bar.

5. In sound producing apparatus having a flexible strip secured at oneend to a base in a manner to produce sound when flexed at one end awayfrom the base and then released to strike thereagainst, a strip flexingand releasing device comprising a body providing a passageway, a slidebar mounted to move axially and laterally in said passageway, said barhaving a shoulder portion engageable with the free end of said strip andreleasable therefrom in response to predetermined axial movement of thebar, lever means for so axially moving said bar, cam means carried bythe body in the path of axial movement of the bar and being engageablewith the end thereof to cam the bar laterally and thereby to releasesaid shoulder from said strip, and spring means opposing such lateralmovement and for axially moving the bar in the opposite direction.

6. In sound producing apparatus having a flexible strip secured at oneend to a base in a manner to produce sound when flexed at one end awayfrom the base and then released to strike thereagainst, a strip flexingand releasing device comprising a body providing a passageway, a slidebar mounted to move axially and swingably in said passageway, said barhaving a shoulder portion engageable with the free end of said strip andreleasable therefrom. in response to predetermined axial movement of thebar, lever means for so axially moving said bar, said bar beinglaterally swingable away from said strip in response to release of theshoulder from the strip, means for axially moving the bar in theopposite direction, and means pivotally mounting the lever means in thebody including a pointed-ended spindle on which the lever is mounted andopposed screws threaded transversely in the body, said screws havingrecessed inner ends, the pointed ends of the spindle pivotally engagingin said respective recessed ends of the screws.

7. In sound producing apparatus, a body, a

resilient sound strip secured at one end in the body, a bar mounted inthe body to slide axially REFERENCES CITED i t engagement. it th free dof t strip The following references are of record in the and to movelaterally out of engagement with said file Of this p e end of the stripafter predetermined flexure of 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS the strip, atrigger in the body operatively engaging the bar to move it axially intoengagement Number N Date with the strip, and cam means in the body inthe 191,094 3341837 May 1877 1,410,639 Aronson Mar. 28, 1922 path ofaxial movement of the bar and operating to cam the bar laterally todisengage it from 10 1395532 said strip. 2,379,143

RUDOLPH C. KUCERA.

McKenzie et a1 Mar. 26, 1935 Gile June 26, 1945

